Team sports invariably involve a series of practices incorporating a recursive, repetitive learning process in order to maximize performance. As part of this process, coaches can keep copies of plays in notebooks, on laptop computers, handheld computing devices and elsewhere. During a practice, a coach may have no direct access to recorded plays and no way to record new plays or integrate or review the performance of existing plays.
In some sports like football, a one-way radio is commonly used between a coach and a player, where the player is equipped with a radio receiver and earphone or speaker in a helmet. The coach can verbally relay plays or ideas to the player. U.S. Pat. No. 8,608,478 (Luster) further teaches a coach's electronic clipboard with an optional associated remote personal unit worn by a player, such as a wrist or other unit with a small display worn by a player. Optionally, Luster teaches that real-time game photographs can be displayed on the coach's electronic clipboard.
The state of the prior art, however, fails to provide an automated way to improve efficiency of practice time, especially at the college and high school levels. There exists a pronounced need to avoid lost time during practice due to negative repetitions (i.e., repetitions that occur with significant mistakes, thus necessitating further repetition of the same play). Such negative repetitions occur due to (among other reasons) ineffective communications between players and coaches or lack of knowledge. Such problems are more pronounced for teams operating under institutional practice time restrictions. For instance, the NCAA imposes a 20-hour work rule, where mandatory player/coach interaction is restricted to a maximum of 20-hours per week. Any effective loss of time during practice, such as occurs with negative repetitions, can result in significant competitive disadvantages during game day.
Thus, there is a need for a system and method where a player can see a play effectively displayed prior to physical execution in order to provide each player with a brief reminder of specific play responsibility. Further, there is a need to automatically capture and store the physical execution of the play to enable the prompt review by the players with immediate feedback and additional communication by the coaches as desired.